Australian PM under fresh fire after horror week

Sydney: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott came under fire on Friday over controversial comments on the arrest of two terror suspects and for referring to a "holocaust" of job losses, capping a horror week.

Abbott began the first parliamentary week of the year fighting for his job after poor poll ratings, a series of policy backflips and perceived high-handed decision making saw MPs from his conservative Liberal Party force a confidence vote.

He survived the "spill" motion on Monday and promised"good government" from that point on with the 39 of the 102Liberal parliamentarians who tried to oust him grudgingly agreeing to give the unpopular leader a second chance.

But he has stumbled since, handing his detractors more ammunition.

On Friday, he was forced to defend himself after revealing in parliament a day earlier the contents of a video allegedly made by two men charged with terrorism offences.

Lawyers said the detail and his remark that it was "monstrous extremism", made under parliamentary privilege, could prejudice a future trial of Omar Al-Kutobi, 24, and Mohammad Kiad, 25.

"What could happen is that the court could find it impossible to have a jury empanelled who was not affected by he comments," New South Wales Bar Association president Jane Needham said.

The men were arrested on Tuesday after police seized an Islamic State flag, a machete and an Arabic-language video detailing an alleged plot during a raid in Sydney.

Abbott's office defended his disclosures.

"The prime minister quoted the translation with the prior consent of the commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, Andrew Colvin," a spokesman said.

Abbott was also criticised for labelling job losses under the Labor opposition a "holocaust" as he faced questions over the government's economic plans.

He later apologised and withdrew the remark after Labor frontbencher Mark Dreyfus said: "Comments like this shouldhave no place in Australian political debate and should never have been made in the first place."

In a trying week, Abbott has also had to deal with a damning report into asylum-seeker children in detention and fend off questions over the government's economic credentials after the unemployment rate in January rose to a near 13-year high of 6.4 percent.